THIRTY-SEVEN THOUSAND FEET ABOVE OHIO - Oh, opportunity.
I write from seat 15A of U.S. Airways flight 3108, en route to New York City for a media conference. It's yet another example of how fortunate I've been to serve as editor in chief of The Ball State Daily News since August 2005.
When I first walked into the newsroom in August 2003, I quickly became frustrated with how I saw things. Although the print edition was at the top of its game, other facets of the Daily News remained underdeveloped.
The office was not an easy place to dive right into, but it was the only way to get involved. The Web site was last on the priority list, despite an increase in online readership for news. There were few efforts to share information with our so-called news partners.
I wanted so badly to change the way this paper functioned. That opportunity was awarded to me in March 2005.
After I took office that August, we began a bumpy process of what I now half-jokingly call the "DN Digital Initiative." We redesigned our Web site to encourage more reader interaction and multimedia content. We launched a Gmail-hosted e-mail system to assist in our staff's daily communications. DN|Podcast hit ear buds in January 2006, providing news, sports and weather on-the-go. Partnerships with our friends at Ball Bearings, WCRD, expo, NewsLink Indiana and NewsWatch were fostered to a) teach us, as students, how to work together, and b) give our readers, viewers and listeners more information in multiple ways.
Even in the closing weeks of the school year we tested our soon-to-be-launched Internet-based planning system, allowing us to track stories from inception to completion. This is a project completed by five members of the Department of Computer Science, who've given us their time and senior project to help us achieve a greater goal.
Sure, some of these changes and projects aren't visible to the average reader, or even the advanced one. They are improvements to our organization's infrastructure, though, which helps us serve our audience (you) better.
Which, by the way, was my priority all along.
To this day, I maintain I've only dreamed the plans. It's the talented staffs I've worked with who executed these ideas. Because of them, the Daily News is now an organization, not just a newspaper.
Serving in this role - a public servant in many ways - has allowed me to interact with so many people for more purpose than answering a simple complaint about the crossword being incorrect.
Thanks for those calls, by the way. In fact, speaking of calls I've had to answer: No, we didn't do it on purpose. Yes, I realize some Sudoku puzzles are frighteningly more challenging than others. Indeed, I have heard that rumor. No, I won't apologize for running "Sexercise."
Thanks, as well, to the supportive faculty I've encountered; your understanding has been most appreciated. I promise I wasn't sleeping the entire time.
Acknowledgement must also be given to President Jo Ann Gora for respecting and appreciating the beauty of a free student press, not only in relation to the Daily News, but our campus media partners as well. Those of you with little to no understanding of the importance of a free press in our society should know that the facilities and rights student journalists are given at Ball State are among the most admired in the nation.
In many ways, we owe much of this to the late Louis Ingelhart, and current Department of Journalism Chairwoman Marilyn Weaver. What Ingelhart started, Weaver and countless others have fought endlessly to maintain and improve.
As with most other leadership positions on campus, there is no manual, no handbook of sorts that comes with this job. The next closest thing, and perhaps strongest, is an adviser. For the Daily News, that's Vince Filak. Without his unparalleled support and sports analogies, I would not have made it through two years of this.
Finally, I owe infinite gratitude to the staffs I've worked with since 2005. You are the reason for this organization's sweeping record of honors and innovation. To the incredibly committed and unbelievably dedicated individuals in management who have served with me, I give you only my highest praise, and most sincere friendship.
Countless Daily News alumni are active in the professional journalism arena, while others are in positions as teachers, marketers and more. Nevertheless, we're tied together by common memories of sleepless nights, stressful days, missed classes, outrageous news and - of course - beer.
As 2,600 of my peers and I prepare to graduate, we begin to look forward to fresh places and new starts, while our underclassmen friends look toward new roles and better apartments. I hear so much talk of fright, but there are no worries here.
In the end, we're all looking forward to the same thing.
Opportunity.
Write to Dave at editor@bsudailynews.com
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